Gaslight Anthem Guitarist On Finding Soundtrack Inspiration In Trent Reznor, New Music & More

Gaslight Anthem were having a moment for most of 2012. The Jersey rockers’ fourth studio album, Handwritten, was easily their highest-charting album to date, debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 upon its release in July.

The Top 5 charting, however, wasn’t the band’s only first of 2012. Gaslight drummer Benny Horowitz made his directorial debut with the band’s video for “Handwritten” (alongside New York-based director Kevin Slack), and midway through the process decided there was much more to the story than the four-minute clip would allow. Instead leave the video as is, he decided to create a short film around it, which follows the lifespan of one piece of vinyl.

Every Word Handwritten, a 15-minute film conceptualized by Horowitz and Slack, marked Horowitz’s full-blown foray into cinematography. The self-professed cinephile enlisted the help of fellow bandmate, guitarist Alex Rosamilia, and friend Wes Kleinknecht to compose the score for the film. Radio.com chatted with Rosamilia about the process of writing the music for Every Word Handwritten and how it differs from recording with Gaslight Anthem, as well as when we can expect a follow-up to 2012’s Handwritten.

How did Benny first approach you about doing the score for Every Word Handwritten?

I approached him, actually. The movie had been done and he asked if I wanted to watch it. We watched it and it ended and he said, ‘What do you think?’ I thought it was really good but I thought the music could be better. So he went, “Well do you want to do it?” And I said, “OK.” And that’s pretty much how it happened.

What was your thought process behind constructing the music for the film?

I’ve always been interested in writing soundtrack or score music. I really like writing music that takes a while to develop, more towards the ambient side of things. [It’s] something I’ve always wanted to do that I’ve never really had a chance, so I took this opportunity to do that. I just wanted to write some ambient stuff that sounded like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I was a really big fan of Trent Reznor’s scores for The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, that’s what started it.